After the excellent Springbok victory on Saturday, some more good news courtesy of Stanlib chief economist Kevin Lings’ weekly raft of charts. A global commodity price boom and the weak domestic economy (dampening imports) has exponentially grown South Africa’s trade balance. It could have been even better. The only rider were SA’s reform-minded president served by a supportive rather than obstructive mining minister. Come on Cyril, reshuffle that cabinet already…
Our partners in London, the Financial Times, publish Europe’s most influential newspaper. And right now what it is saying about South Africa is dire. The FT’s “Big Read” column over the weekend was dedicated to SA’s month of shame. The article is republished below – a window into how the world sees SA right now.
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Another fascinating piece from London is in The Spectator, the oldest surviving magazine on earth (est. 1711). It’s a review of the new book by medical researcher Sir Jeremy Farrar, who has been close to the Covid action as head of the Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation. Journalist Matt Ridley highlights how Farrar and his fellow scientist cohorts initially believed the virus had leaked from a Wuhan lab – but after a conference call with Anthony Fauci, suddenly changed their tune. Before changing it back again recently.
The Spectator offers an eat-before-you-buy option for non subscribers. Here’s the link to the strange Wuhan Leak flip-flop. And while you’re there, have a read of another excellent piece in the magazine on five “experts” who scarily predicted that the UK’s ending of lockdowns on its 19 July “Freedom Day” would lead to a disastrous surge of infections. Things actually went the other way.
And finally today, Tim Higgins at The Wall Street Journal took a deep dive into Elon Musk’s nightmare in 2018 when Tesla was near to collapse. It’s a unique inside look at how the South African born and raised entrepreneur went though the fire to rescue the business – rebounding from a personal and professional reputation that was in tatters.
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